Meadows named Outstanding Woman Administrator

Stephanie Meadows, chief financial officer for the School of Medicine, will receive the Susan D. Marchase Outstanding Woman Administrator Award, given each year to leaders who have mentored and served other women.

Stephanie Meadows, chief financial officer and assistant dean for Resource Management in the School of Medicine, is the 2014 Susan D. Marchase Outstanding Woman Administrator. The award is one of the UAB Outstanding Women Awards, given each year by the UAB Women’s Center and the UAB Women’s Studies Program to student, administrative, faculty and community leaders who have mentored and served other women or overcome adversity.

“It’s truly humbling to be named the recipient of this award, and it’s an absolute honor because the award is named after someone who, as a young professional, I always looked to as a role model,” Meadows says of Marchase, who is highly regarded for her work to recruit and retain women for leadership positions throughout the university. She joined the management staff of UAB in 1988 as an Administrative Officer of the Department of Medicine and rose to the position of Director of Administration and Fiscal Affairs. Marchase was chosen as the 2002 recipient of the Outstanding Woman Administrator Award; the award was renamed in her honor after her death in 2004.

As chief financial officer, Meadows is responsible for financial operations of the School of Medicine, the largest of the 10 schools and colleges at UAB with a $130 million operating budget in the 2013 fiscal year. She works closely with administrative and fiscal staff in each of the school’s departments to monitor finances and works with the facilities team to ensure money is spent wisely in renovations and capital projects.

“We couldn’t be happier that the Women’s Center and the Women’s Studies Program chose Stephanie to receive this award,” says Selwyn M. Vickers, senior vice president for Medicine and dean of the School of Medicine. “Stephanie and her team face an extraordinary task and handle it with apparent ease. She is a confident, stalwart leader with exceptional skills who is worthy of this award and the gratitude of the School and University.”

Meadows has had an illustrious career in financial management in academics and academic medicine since beginning her 24-year tenure at UAB. She came to the university’s general accounting office in 1990 after earning her bachelor’s degree in business administration from Auburn University. She worked as a financial analyst, and later business officer, in the Office of the Associate Vice President for Financial Affairs from 1993 until 1997; financial officer in the Office of the Provost from 1997 until 2001; and financial officer in the Department of Pediatrics from 2001 until 2005, when she was named assistant dean for Resource Management.

She earned a master’s degree in business administration from UAB in 1992 while working full time. She serves for Dean Vickers on the financial committee for the Valley Foundation, the practice plan for the School of Medicine regional campus in Huntsville, and is a member of the Group on Business Affairs for the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Meadows “is committed to improving the lives of her neighbors, her employees and her colleagues,” says Pam Bounelis, Ph.D., assistant dean for Biomedical Research in the School of Medicine, who nominated Meadows for the Marchase award.

“Stephanie provides service to women by serving as a fantastic role model,” Bounelis says. “She works hard, enjoys her family, gives to others and champions the underdog. She’s fair-minded, unbiased and always makes her solid-gold heart and platinum brain available to serve and support others.”